“Look at it this way,” said Bunson. “Bush was getting clobbered on
ignoring all those warnings about terrorists—how they were planning
attacks using airplanes. He got some of the warnings right before
September 11, and then he took off for a month’s vacation. This
business about Al Ghraib takes him off the hook.”

“Actually,” said Lum, “he was lucky that thing about ignoring warnings
came up, because before that all people were talking about was his going
AWOL from National Guard duty during the Vietnam war.”

“I see what you mean,” I said. “That National Guard thing was bad
business. He was vulnerable on that that all right.”

“Naw,” said Lum, “you’ve got it all wrong. That National Guard
controversy was actually a piece of luck,” because until that came up,
everybody was focused on that lie in the State of the Union speech. The
one about Iraq’s nuclear program.”

Ed jumped in to disagree. “Use your head!” he said. “That whole
‘sixteen words’ controversy was a godsend. It took people’s minds off
those missing weapons of mass destruction. That was getting to be a
real embarrassment. I mean, that was supposed to be the whole reason
for starting the war.”

Bunson guffawed. “Are you crazy? That ‘weapons of mass destruction’
fiasco was the best thing that could have happened to him. It took
everybody’s attention away from the Enron mess. Enron and Kenneth Lay
bankrolled Bush’s whole political career. They were by far his biggest
campaign backers, and half the people in his administration were dipping
from the Enron honey pot.”

Lum disagreed. “That Enron scandal was just what he needed. Once that
broke, people stopped talking about his pushing huge tax breaks for the
rich when the economy was shedding jobs like needles off an old
Christmas tree.”

“That uproar over the tax cuts and unemployment actually worked to his
advantage,” claimed Ed. “People stopped talking about how his
operatives and right-wingers on the Supreme Court stole the election.”

Bunson held up his hand. “Boys,” he said, “you’re acting as if these
breaks just dropped out of the skies. But when you look at it, he’s a
man who makes his own luck.”